Travel

Updated 6/2011

Travel / Maps / Geography - databases, websites and materials in our collection.

Online Booking

These are the big three of online booking. All of the sites are well designed and easy to use.  Check prices and book flights, hotels, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises and search for sales and deals.  Tip: All of the major airlines and hotels also have their own online booking.

Expedia

Orbitz

Travelocity

Aggregators

These sites help you avoid having to visit lots of separate sites to compare prices by searching multiple sites at once and showing you the best deals.

BookingBuddy

Kayak

Other Online Booking Sites

Some of the best of the rest.

HotWire

Priceline

Yahoo! Travel

Travel Guidebooks

Fodor’s – This is a good choice for mainstream travelers planning a trip and includes online booking services.

Frommers - Findgood basic information on this easy-to-use site. It also includes online booking.

Lonely Planet - Lonely Planet has information on exotic (and not so exotic) locales. This is an excellent online guide with lots of information from many destinations.

Rick Steves - Get travel tips from the TV travel guru.

Rough Guide – Like the print books, good "off the beaten path" information is the Rough Guide's specialty.

Traveler’s Ratings

Trip Advisor – Bed bugs? Fantastic coconut drinks? You can rate your trip and read the ratings of other travelers. Trip Advisor also has printable travel guides for selected destinations.

IgoUgo – Award-winning site now owned by Travelocity with reviews and photos covering more than 5,500 destinations.

Illinois Travel

Enjoy Illinois - What’s going on in Peoria this weekend? Attractive, well designed, and easy to use, the Illinois Bureau of Tourism site includes trip planners and brochures with information about many Illinois travel destinations.

Macy’s Museum Adventure Pass – Receive free admission or a special discount at 17 unique Chicago area cultural destinations from the St. Charles Public Library, sponsored by Macy’s.

Other local sites

Choose Chicago

Explore Minnesota

Illinois Art Fair Directory

Illinois State Parks and Natural Areas

Metromix

Michigan's Official Travel and Tourism Site

St. Charles Convention and Visitor’s Bureau

Travel Iowa

Travel Wisconsin

Local Public Transportation

CTA

Metra

Pace

RTA

See America

National Park Service

New York Times USA Travel Guide

See America

International Travel

The U.S. State Department – Need a passport? Wondering if it’s safe to go to Zimbabwe?  A great starting place for the international traveler, with links to information and forms for passports and visas, travel warning notices, lists of U.S. embassies worldwide, and more.

Tourism Offices Worldwide - Official tourism sites from countries around the world and also all of the individual US states.

Currency Converter – How many pesos in a dollar? The  OANDA Currency Converter provides current exchange rates between most currencies.

Maps

Google Maps – Maps and driving directions for the USA and some international destinations. Includes satellite images and street views, where available. A new feature is transit maps for selected cities.

MapQuest – Also includes maps and driving directions for the USA and selected other countries. A new feature finds gas prices by address and plots the stations on a map and provides driving directions.

- More on our site about travel.